Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas of Byzantium

Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963-969) is no doubt one of Byzantium's greatest military emperors who at the same time lived an ascetic lifestyle by having a vegetarian diet and not having any children with his wife Empress Theophano, only marrying her for political reasons in order to be legitimized as emperor. His reign was marked by military victories against the Arabs in the east including the conquests of Cyprus, Cilicia, and parts of Syria, while he too was the author of the military manual "Praecepta Militaria". However, no matter how great and talented Nikephoros was as a general, his domestic and foreign policy as emperor was questionable as his popularity was basically due to his conquests, and without it he was more or less distant from his subjects as he imposed high taxes even on the Church to fund his military campaigns making him unpopular with the Church too. Additionally, Nikephoros II grew greatly unpopular especially because of the high taxes he imposed especially on the nobility while he also stopped the Church from getting funds from the nobility as he believed the Church did not need wealth.
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One incident which shows how bad he was at pleasing his people was in 967 when a fight in Constantinople broke out between his soldiers which injured a few civilians that happened to be in the area. To prove that his army was still disciplined, Nikephoros had them perform marches in the Hippodrome, however some people in the audience spread a rumor that the emperor was planning to kill them in there, thus resulting in panic and in the process a great stampede when people rushed out of the Hippodrome resulting in many deaths. Rather than apologizing, Nikephoros chose to instead seclude himself in the palace making him even more unpopular, and true enough due to even falling out with his own generals he was assassinated by them in 969.
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In terms of foreign policy, Nikephoros II handled diplomacy with Bulgaria badly that he ended up breaking peace with them by having the Kievan Rus attack and devastate Bulgaria as a response to the Bulgarian tsar not doing his job in blocking Magyar raids into Byzantium. As with the Holy Roman Empire of Otto I, Nikephoros II insulted their envoy Bishop Liutprand of Cremona- who previously insulted Nikephoros by not not calling him a "Roman emperor" but a Greek one- by mistreating Liutprand in his visit. Previously, Liutprand visited Constantinople back in the reign of Emperor Constantine VII (945-959) and was greatly impressed and treated well, however when being Nikephoros' guest he was seated at the edge of table and served rotten fish while the silks he was supposed to take home to Germany were confiscated. In return, Liutprand wrote about Nikephoros in an insulting way saying:
"A monstrosity of a man, a pygmy, fat-headed and like a mole as to the smallness of his eyes; disgusting with his short, broad, thick, and half hoary beard; disgraced by a neck an inch long; very bristly through the length and thickness of his hair; in color an Ethiopian; one whom it would not be pleasant to meet in the middle of the night; with extensive belly, lean of loin, very long hip considering his shortness of stature, small of shank, proportionate as to his heels and feet; clad in a garment costly but too old, and foul smelling and faded through age; shod with Sicyonian shoes; bold of tongue, a fox by nature, perjury, and lying a Ulysees."
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Art of Nikephoros II Phokas by myself, 2022